I rode in the RAGBRAI event last week. There were over 10,000 bicyclists riding this event. We rode about 500 miles over 7 days.
Dave Mote is another powered paraglider pilot. He and I flew some mornings and evenings when possible. He is an excellent cyclist and we rode our bicycles together for a good part of the week too.
We arrived in Sioux City in the afternoon on the 24th. It was sunny and a bit gusty. The group of 63 bicyclists and 7 crew members known as the CUBS settled in to about 5 yards on the north side of Sioux City. This is in the northwest corner of the state very near South Dakota. We left Lincolnwood, IL, at 5:30-6am after packing the truck, vans and touring bus in the dark and the rain.
Dave & I decided to check out PPG launch sites in the area with one of our hosts. I went up a hill from our host's home [a very nice guy named Chris who is a chiropractor]. We met a couple of very nice guys with larger properties, one of which was pretty appropriate for our needs. Unfortunately the one with the best property was the least enthusiastic about letting us use his land. He made noise about his wife may not approve. We heard of a field adjacent to a school on the road away from downtown and explored this. It was not too large and surrounded by tall trees and many homes. We opted to go out a little further from town. We took a country road to the west and found some higher ground near the top of a hill with a freshly mowed hay field and what appeared to be a wide right of way alongside the road. Dave was a little concerned about the wind conditions and the fact that it was still a bit early in the day. Sunset was about 9pm and we were getting ready to fly about 6pm. I took the first flight. It was a bit choppy but not too bad. Just after I launched we noticed a girl come out of the house closest to our launching area. She was followed by a man who was her father. She was enthusiatic about seeing us fly and wanted to see someone launch. Her father was a bit concerned and told Dave that we should have asked for permission to use his property. His daughter's enthusiasm overcame his reluctance so we stayed and talke to both of them for awhile. There was what seemed to be a very minor gust front that came through after I had been flying for about 20 minutes, so I landed. This is when we had what turned out to be a nice conversation with this man who was also a physician oncologist. We waited for awhile and then both of us took flight. It was a beautiful evening. We then went to dinner in town.
We were able to fly Sunday evening from a small municipal airport near Storm Lake. Then Monday evening I flew while Dave had shuttle driving duties for our group about 4 miles out of Algona. Tuesday morning the wind picked up and conditions were not good for flying. Tuesday night thunderstorms came through the Clear Lake area where we were staying and it was too windy Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to fly. Wednesday evening we spent the night near Charles City at the Cedar Ridge Golf Course. We flew Wednesday evening and Thursday morning from the driving range and had a great time. Thursday we had a long riding day and rain was threatening again. We stayed in a Ramada Inn in Waterloo. The weather wasn't good and we didn't have a convenient site to fly from. Friday morning we rode for about 40 miles in pouring rain. It finally let up later in the day and Weather Brief told us of calming winds but still a chance of rain developing throughout the area around Manchester where we were staying. We flew about 7pm and saw 2 other PPGs sw of us who came over to join us. The following morning, Saturday which was yesterday, one of those other pilots, Mike, came up from the Cedar Rapids to join us for an early morning flight before we had to ride 50 miles on the last day of our adventure. It was a nice flight. The air
was a little bumpy but not bad.
There will be photos eventually of our trip posted and I will provide links on this site.
My best to all of you always!
Dave
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